😳 Mancini on how he marked Haaland: He grabbed my bum | OneFootball

Italy and Norway faced off this past Sunday, which directly qualified Norway for the World Cup and sent the Italians straight to the playoffs.

The northerners returned to a World Cup event for the first time since 1998 and did so definitively by beating Italy 1-4 at San Siro.

During the match, the spotlight was on Erling Braut Haaland, but Gianluca Mancini, Roma's and the 'azzurra's' center-back, defended him impeccably until the 78th minute.

📸 ALBERTO PIZZOLI - AFP or licensors

The Manchester City beast slipped away twice and scored two goals in a minute, which blew the game wide open. They went from 1-1 to 1-3 in a matter of seconds.

After Haaland's goals, the 'citizen' forward and the Roma center-back had several confrontations and had to be separated multiple times, especially by Donnarumma, Mancini's teammate in the national team and Haaland's teammate at City.

📸 STEFANO RELLANDINI - AFP or licensors

But why was Erling so angry? He explained on 'TV2': "Mancini started touching my butt when the score was 1-1. I thought: 'What is he doing?' Then I got fired up and said to him: 'Thanks for the motivation.' I scored two goals and we won the match 4-1. So I thank him."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

📸 ALBERTO PIZZOLI - AFP or licensors